A well generally includes a wellbore (or “borehole”) that is drilled into the earth to provide access to a geologic formation below the earth's surface (or “subsurface formation”). The well may facilitate the extraction of natural resources, such as hydrocarbons and water, from the subsurface formation, facilitate the injection of substances into the subsurface formation, or facilitate the evaluation and monitoring of the subsurface formation. In the petroleum industry, hydrocarbon wells are often drilled to extract (or “produce”) hydrocarbons, such as oil and gas, from subsurface formations. The term “oil well” is often used to refer to a well designed to produce oil. Similarly the term “gas well” is often used to refer to a well designed to produce gas. In the case of an oil well, some natural gas is typically produced along with oil. A well producing both oil and natural gas is sometimes referred to as an “oil and gas well” or an “oil well.” The term “hydrocarbon well” is often used to describe wells that facilitate the production of hydrocarbons, including oil wells and oil and gas wells.
Creating a hydrocarbon well typically involves several stages, including a drilling stage, a completion stage and a production stage. The drilling stage normally involves drilling a wellbore into a subsurface formation that is expected to contain a concentration of hydrocarbons that can be produced. The portion of the subsurface formation expected to contain hydrocarbons is often referred to as a “hydrocarbon reservoir” or “reservoir.” The drilling process is normally facilitated by a drilling rig that sits at the earth's surface. The drilling rig can provide for operating a drill bit to cut the wellbore, hoisting, lowering and turning drill pipe and tools, circulating drilling fluids in the wellbore, and generally controlling various operations in the wellbore (often referred to as “down-hole” operations). The completion stage involves making the well ready to produce hydrocarbons. In some instances, the completion stage includes installing casing pipe into the wellbore, cementing the casing pipe in place, perforating the casing pipe and cement, installing production tubing, installing downhole valves for regulating production flow, and pumping fluids into the well to fracture, clean or otherwise prepare the reservoir and well to produce hydrocarbons. The production stage involves producing hydrocarbons from the reservoir by way of the well. During the production stage, the drilling rig is normally removed and replaced with a collection of valves at the surface (often referred to as “surface valves” or a “production tree”), and valves are installed into the wellbore (often referred to as “downhole valves”). These surface and downhole valves can be operated to regulate pressure in the wellbore, to control production flow from the wellbore and to provide access to the wellbore in the event further completion work is needed. A pump jack or other mechanism can provide lift that assists in extracting hydrocarbons from the reservoir, especially in instances where the pressure in the well is so low that the hydrocarbons do not flow freely to the surface. Flow from an outlet valve of the production tree is normally connected to a distribution network of midstream facilities, such as tanks, pipelines and transport vehicles, which transport the production to downstream facilities, such as refineries and export terminals.
The various stages of creating a hydrocarbon well often include challenges that are addressed to successfully develop the well. During the drilling stage, a well operator may have to monitor the condition of the wellbore to ensure it is advancing in a suitable trajectory, and it is not experiencing issues that may jeopardize the drilling of the wellbore or the overall success of the well. For example, during drilling of a wellbore, a well operator may continually monitor the wellbore for evidence of instability, including deformation and expansion of the wellbore, such as keyseats, washouts, drilling-induced fractures (DIFs) and breakouts (BOs). A keyseat can include a small-diameter channel worn into the side of a larger diameter wellbore, caused, for example, by a sharp change in direction of the wellbore. A keyseat may include an asymmetrical erosion of the wellbore wall due to mechanical impact of the drilling components on the wellbore walls, resulting from a change in the wellbore azimuth or deviation (or “dogleg”) or differential mechanical wear of hard and soft rock. A washout can include an enlarged region of a wellbore, caused, for example, by weak or unconsolidated formation rock, formation rock weakened by drilling fluids, high bit jet velocity, or mechanical wear by downhole components. A washout may include an enlarged wellbore cross section in all directions around the wellbore. DIFs and BOs can be systematically explained in terms of hoop stresses around a wellbore, and can be used to assess stress and strength of formation rock around the wall of a wellbore. A DIF includes a localized tensile deformation of a wellbore wall, such as a crack, caused when a tensile hoop stress exceeds the tensile strength of the rock at the location of the DIF. A breakout (BO) can include a localized shear deformation of a wellbore wall, manifested as localized rock spalling of the borehole, caused when a compressive hoop stress at the location of the BO exceeds the unconfined compressive strength of the rock at the location. DIFs and BOs typically occur offset from one another by 90 degrees (°). For example, sets of DIFs may occur oriented at about 0° and 180° along a length of a wellbore, accompanied by BOs oriented at about 90° and 270° along the length of a wellbore.